Walt Disney’s Favorite Foods

In his latest “Wonderful World of Walt” column, animation historian Jeff Kurtti explores Walt Disney’s favorite foods. Suffice it to say, Walt was not a foodie:

“[Walt] had eaten in hash houses and lunch wagons for so many years (in order to save money) that he’d developed a hash house/lunch wagon appetite. He liked fried potatoes, hamburgers, western sandwiches, hotcakes, canned peas, hash, stew, roast beef sandwiches. He wasn’t keen for steak — or any expensive cuts of meat. He didn’t go for vegetables, but he loved chicken livers or macaroni and cheese. He liked to eat at Biff’s [a little coffee house on a nearby corner]. He felt they did their potatoes “right” by pan-frying them.” – Diane Disney Miller

â€¦ so I guess he ate little due to time? He’d be some kind of pig if he ate that as a daily basis.

Nic

Actually if he kept really physically active and had a healthy metabolism he’d have been just fine. For instance, the Amish aren’t well known for perfectly stellar diets, but because they’re constantly active and moving, it isn’t all that destructive.

Fast-foward to today and Disney is strongly discouraging kids from eating many of Uncle Walt’s favorites.

Kristjan Birnir

Not sure what Walt’s diet have to do with cartoons? Unless it was the inspire for the Goofy cartoon “Twomorrow we Diet”. Although I highly doubt that to be truth. Thats more of fiction i drew up in my head.

Gobo

I love all sorts of oddball, interesting, exotic foods, and love going out for a “foodie” meal… but I also love me some hash, chicken livers, and roast beef.

Walt was also very fond of canned chili, which he often ate right in his office for lunch. He liked to mix two certain brands which he thought made for a better result.

Funkybat

I remember reading somewhere that when Walt was traveling in Europe for business, he found that it was impossible to get anything approaching decent chili anywhere. He started to ship canned chili over with him, so that he could keep to his preferred eating habits while overseas. As a picky eater myself, I can say that I very much understood Walt’s decision.

christy karacas

what do you mean he wasn’t a foodie??? that stuff sounds great!
my mom talks about her grandma frying up chicken liver and onions and having it over mashed potatoes and peas…we made it once omg it was so good!!!!!!!

I remember Biff’s. Nice place, classic Googie architecture. One of those things you never miss until after it’s long gone. As for Walt’s culinary preferences, he’d probably love the food truck revolution that’s been going on this decade.

Andreas Wessel-Therhorn

perhaps good to remember that Walt was of a very different generation when that kind of food was normal, before protein intake and hydration became synonyms for eating and drinking. and doctors still insisted that smoking was good for you. So times change.Thanks to Jeff Kurtti for the little bits of Walt!

If you go to the bar lounge at the Carthey Circle restaurant at the California Adventure park, you can actually order Walts favorite scotch, the black and white scotch. A cast member was telling me when they went through Walts apartment on Main Street in Disneyland, there was a manifest of all of his favorite foods and alcoholic drinks, some of which they decided to serve in the parks. Thought it was kinda interesting.

Inkan1969

Reminds me of the many John K articles that point out that animators are big carnivores.

I assume that by “hash” house, he did not mean that figuratively…;-)

Bill

Is that really a photo of Walt, or is it shopped? If real, it’s pretty neat!

Paul Penna

The photo itself appears real; I first saw it in b/w in a post on Michael Barrier’s blog dated October 1, 2009. This is the first time I’ve seen it in color; if it’s colorized, it looks exceptionally convincing. I think it’s authentic.

Jorge Garrido

That’s my kind of food! Yum!

James

Mmmm, Walt had good taste. It’s been too long since my last serving of chicken livers.

Pedro Nakama

Years ago at Disneyland one of the menus had an item the said “Walt’s Favorite.”

Samjoe

I enjoyed this article very much. No finger pointing
or voicing that his diet killed him.It is what it was.
Actually this was the way food was prepared in the 50’sand the early 60’s.Not all the food stuff, we take for granted, wasn’t even availible back then.
Bread, a meat dish with one vegetable, maybe a desert, cake or a cookie. On sunday there would be pie. And that
was it. Also kids got milk, and grownups drank coffee or tea. Portions where smaller. And remember the only one that cooked at home was your mother. She was the one in charge of the household. Just think of all the changes we’ve had since then. Thanks, Good Article.

A Writer

I want to meet Walt

when is Disney Inc. going to unfreeze the guy?

Marvin

Walt’s favorite restaurant in the Hyperion studio days was said to be The Tam O’ Shanter in Glendale, still in business today. Hearty would describe the menu, and it’s proximity to the Hyperion studio is one reason Walt preferred the place. It was probably the closest decent place around.

Brent

Walt Disney’s diet appears to be all wrong but there are a lot of things that work with that diet. If you look at the list of his preferred foods at home, the salads were amongst his favourites – Waldorf, Carrot and Raisin, Tomato and Cucumber, and Chef’s Salad – so the photo in this piece isn’t far wrong. Most of the food he was eating wouldn’t be heavy on preservatives, even the canned foods of the period. A good cook would most likely by fresh produce. Fats would be a concern, but his choices in deserts aren’t too bad. His smoking was probably a much bigger issue than his diet.

The big thing to remember is that form most of his life Walt was quite active physically. He was one of the regular players at Will Rogers’s ranch until Rogers’s death where he played with Rogers, David Niven, Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable, and I’ve also read that he enjoyed sailing. I suspect his caloric intake was closed to balanced by the energy he used.